--- title: "Comparing Aurora Serverless and Fauna" publication: "DB Weekly" issue: 347 published_at: "2021-03-26" canonical_url: "https://dbweekly.com/issues/347" --- Plus why aren't databases managing themselves more by now? | #347 — March 26, 2021 [Read on the Web](https://dbweekly.com/issues/347) Database Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/hyob5fqunvlgplj66b6n.jpg)](https://antonz.org/sqlite-is-not-a-toy-database/) ['SQLite Is Not a Toy Database'](https://antonz.org/sqlite-is-not-a-toy-database/) — We are _huge_ SQLite fans here, so you didn’t need us to tell you SQLite isn’t a toy, but this article provides a nice roundup of just how useful SQLite can be in case there are any skeptics out there. Anton Zhiyanov [Speeding Up SQL Queries by Orders of Magnitude with `UNION`](https://www.foxhound.systems/blog/sql-performance-with-union/) — SQL’s `UNION` operation isn’t usually regarded as a way to optimize query performance, but in many cases it can be used to achieve massive improvements in speed. Ben Levy and Christian Charukiewicz [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/0f0205a4.png)](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/webinars/distributed-principles-in-a-cloud-native-database/?utm_source=dzone&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_campaign=mofu-webinar-distributed-principles&utm_content=dbweekly-primary&utm_term=dbweekly-weekly-0326) [[Webinar\] Distributed Principles in a Cloud-Native Database](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/webinars/distributed-principles-in-a-cloud-native-database/?utm_source=dzone&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_campaign=mofu-webinar-distributed-principles&utm_content=dbweekly-primary&utm_term=dbweekly-weekly-0326) — _What are the primary challenges in distributed systems? And how are modern distributed databases addressing those challenges?_ Join us to see examples of scale, resilience and data locality solutions in distributed systems. CockroachDB sponsor [How We Implemented Distributed Multi-Document ACID Transactions in Couchbase](https://blog.couchbase.com/distributed-multi-document-acid-transactions/) — ACID transactions tended to be something you gave up when using NoSQL databases, but this is no longer the case as numerous systems like MongoDB and now Couchbase have implemented support. Denis Rosa ['It's Been Decades. Why Don't Databases Manage Themselves Yet?'](https://www.brentozar.com/archive/2021/03/its-been-decades-why-dont-databases-manage-themselves-yet/) — Decades into his database-oriented career, Brent Ozar reflects on why tasks like provisioning the right resources, configuring settings, and designing intricate schemas are still largely a manual job. Brent Ozar Quick Bits - The New York Times is rolling out a new approach to [how it hires data analysts](https://open.nytimes.com/an-update-to-our-sql-interviews-cf39dafeddcf) - Freelance marketplace Fiverr is [expanding into the 'data science' vertical.](https://www.datanami.com/2021/03/25/fiverr-adds-data-science-recruiting-category/) - Timescale has opened up a [State of PostgreSQL 2021 survey.](https://timescale.typeform.com/to/oARz5bOx/) [The Algorithms That Make Instacart Roll](https://spectrum.ieee.org/artificial-intelligence/machine-learning/the-algorithms-that-make-instacart-roll) — An interesting, though high level, look behind the scenes of how Instacart uses all of the data at its disposal to keep the grocery picking and delivery service going. Machine learning plays a big role in estimating availability given patchy and temporally limited data sent from the stores. IEEE Spectrum [Comparing Two Serverless Databases: AWS Aurora Serverless v2 and Fauna](https://fauna.com/blog/compare-aws-aurora-serverless-v2-architecture-features-pricing-vs-fauna) — The second version of AWS Aurora’s auto-scaling, on-demand ‘serverless’ variant is in preview. Fauna, on the other hand, is a cloud data API and store that’s also often called a ‘serverless’ database. Yet, they’re _very_ different. This piece, by the CTO of Fauna, compares the two approaches in some depth. Evan Weaver (Fauna) [The World Has Changed – Why Haven’t Database Designs?](https://www.nextplatform.com/2021/03/25/the-world-has-changed-why-havent-database-designs/) — I don’t fully agree with this opinion piece but it throws up some interesting questions to consider around how the underlying assumptions and considerations that influence database design (and the design of database _systems_) change over time. Avishai Ish-Shalom [pg_query 2.0: The Easiest Way to Parse Postgres Queries](https://pganalyze.com/blog/pg-query-2-0-postgres-query-parser) — `pg_query` is a standalone library for parsing Postgres SQL queries - version 2 adds support for Postgres 13 and includes a _deparser_ so that manipulated parse trees can be turned _back_ into SQL.. big opportunities there. It’s a C library but available in [a Ruby library](https://github.com/pganalyze/pg_query) as well as [Python](https://pypi.org/project/pglast/) and [Node.js](https://www.npmjs.com/package/pgsql-parser) bindings. Lukas Fittl [Getting Started with Postgres' `EXPLAIN` (`ANALYZE`)](https://blog.crunchydata.com/blog/get-started-with-explain-analyze) — Prefixing a query with `EXPLAIN` lets you see how Postgres’s execution planner has interpreted the query and how it plans to execute it. The `ANALYZE` option goes a bit further and actually runs the query supplementing the more general information. Kat Batuigas [Best-Practices on How to Speed Up Your Postgres Queries. Free eBook](https://pganalyze.com/ebooks/optimizing-postgres-query-performance?utm_source=DBWeeklySecondary02262021) — Learn how companies like Atlassian and CounterPath are able to speed up their queries by orders of magnitude. In this eBook, we share our best practices for optimizing Postgres performance. pganalyze sponsor [Building a NoSQL E-Commerce Data Model](https://resources.fabric.inc/blog/nosql-ecommerce-data-model) — Learn about the key components and data models for an e-commerce store and how they’re linked together when using a noSQL data store (MongoDB, in this case). John Gramila [Key Considerations in Moving to Graviton2 (ARM) for Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora Databases](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/key-considerations-in-moving-to-graviton2-for-amazon-rds-and-amazon-aurora-databases/) — Having developed its own ARM-based chips that promise more performance at a lower price, AWS is rather keen to get your database workloads shifted over to them – here’s the process they expect users to take. Reagan Rosario and Tyler Lynch (AWS) 💻 Jobs [Carbon Five Software Engineer](https://grnh.se/90767e4b2us) — We’re a team of creative consultants dedicated to building brilliant products for innovative clients. Join us for new projects, tech and challenges. Carbon Five A **[Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/)** publication. [Change your email address](https://dbweekly.com/edit_subscription/*|UID|*) or[Stop getting this newsletter](https://dbweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*) © Cooper Press Ltd · Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Louth, LN11 0LS, United Kingdom